Star Wars: Legacy of the Jedi
by Jedi Kyle Katarn
Summary: Almost a century after the films end, the galaxy is once more ruled by a tyrannical empire. Also, this time there are no more jedi to fight back against evil. Can the last scion of a long lost family save the galaxy, or have the agents of the empire finally won?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi readers. For those familiar with my other account, this is Revan Knight. I was having too many issues with that one so I created a new account for this site. I said I would do a Star Wars story for some time and this is it. If you are like me, you were not happy with what Disney did to the franchise. I actually read the plot for the last jedi before I went to see it and ultimately did not to see it at all. It was such a horrible story in my opinion that I wouldn't waste any time or money on it. I also am doing this story as a way of fixing the damage done to the franchise. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

 ** **Star Wars****

 **Legacy of the Jedi**

 _It is a time of oppression once more. Ten years after the fall of the FIRST ORDER, a race called the YUUZHAN VONG invaded the galaxy, wiping out the JEDI ORDER that REY was rebuilding and beginning a war the likes of which the galaxy had never seen._

 _After three years, the galaxy triumphed over the VONG and wiped out the invaders. The resulting victory allowed the one who led the galaxy during the war, ARCINA, to reestablish imperial control and create a new GALACTIC EMPIRE._

 _Sixty years later, the imperials are still in control of the galaxy. With the majority of the galaxy weary of the cycle of wars since the CLONE WARS, the empire is practically unchallenged. The only ones willing to fight is a group of rogues known as the GALACTIC ALLIANCE..._

 **Coruscant**

The gathering hall of the new imperial palace was swarming with guests. It was the day of one of the annual holidays of the empire. This particular holiday, though, was only celebrated by the empire's elite, it's most fanatical, powerful, and influential members. Many of the middle to lower class citizens weren't even aware this celebration was happening. This was probably a good thing for the empire, as what this holiday was for might stir up negative feelings towards it.

Admiral Gar Stazi was standing near the banquet table, reaching for a plate to gather some of the food the empire was providing at this gathering. Most of the imperial elite on Coruscant were present for this celebration, from minor nobles to the highest ranking military officers like himself. He was in full uniform, his dark grey dress shirt and pants contrasting with the cape he wore, which had a white underside. Almost all the other military officers he saw were in formal uniform, the few who weren't wearing extravagant clothes like the nobles. "Yep, anyone who is anyone is here" he said to himself.

Stazi preferred to stay to the outer edges of any crowd like this. While the new empire was not xenophobic (mostly) and there were many non-human members, he was still slightly uncomfortable being the only duros here. He also just didn't like crowds that much, or being near the center of attention. Each time he was promoted he had to ask his superiors to forgo a formal ceremony. Of course, now he was the one who did the promotions.

"Of course you would be here too."

The annoyed voice interrupted him as he was just reaching for some nerf steak. Stazi mentally cussed; he knew that voice all too well. Setting his plate down, he turned to face a human in his mid forties, just slightly younger than he was. "Hello Rian."

Rian Johnson, imperial admiral of the seventh fleet, was standing right behind him. Like Stazi he too was dressed in the uniform of an imperial officer, though he didn't have a cape on.

"I still fail to understand how the empire tolerates you and your kind."

Stazi had heard Johnson's prejudiced remarks so many times that he no longer cared to get angry at his hate-mongering. "It's simple: they need a man of actual military talent making the calls."

Johnson became enraged at his comrade's response. "You are a skilled tactician, but we both know you and your kind are incapable of any real strategic thinking."

"It's that sort of attitude that has you under another admiral rather than commanding your own fleet. It always has been that which held you and your career back."

Johnson looked like he was ready to retaliate when the lights in the room dimmed slightly. Johnson gave his hated rival one last look before he walked off to join most of the other officers. Stazi smirked to himself. He and Johnson had gone through the imperial academy together. Well, perhaps a better way of saying it was they were in the same class. Johnson had been speciest towards all non-humans practically his entire life (or as he liked to call them, aliens). He was a competent military officer, but Stazi's constant coming out on top of any class they were in fueled his hatred towards him and others of his kind. His instructors were quick to catch on to this, and many held Johnson in contempt for this.

"Greetings to you all" a speaker announced from one of the far ends of the hall. All guests turned towards the man speaking. "Now, without further a due, I present to you our glorious leader, Empress Arcina."

All guests fell to one knee and bowed as a figure entered flanked by two members of the imperial knights, the empire's force-sensitive warriors. Empress Arcina was dressed in a set of women's formal wear that hugged her body, the crimson red silk showing each and every curve in her perfect form while the cape-like robe she wore flowed down to the floor. Despite being a human who had ruled for more than sixty years, she was still young in appearance, seemingly only about her early to mid thirties. She had short brown hair (the latest of her choice of style and color) and yellowish eyes. Those eyes always made Gar feel uneasy. For all her beauty, Arcina's eyes seemed to make her look... unnatural.

The empress walked to an elevated podium on a stage and addressed her guests. "Greetings to you all. You may rise." The entire assembly rose at her words.

"Welcome to the imperial palace. Let us celebrate this glorious Mon Mothma day, for without her our current empire would not have been possible to create."

A chorus of laughter echoed throughout the hall. Mon Mothma day was celebrated each year on the anniversary of the New Republic's founding. This was actually not a true celebration, but rather a mockery of the memory of Mon Mothma, the first chancellor of the New Republic. She had led the Rebel Alliance to victory against the original Galactic Empire, but once the war was over she made a move that historians unanimously agreed was a foolish decision. Mon Mothma had hated Emperor Sheev Palpatine and tried to erase all he had done, which included disbanding galactic military forces until only a token force was left to protect the New Republic from pirates. This had single handedly doomed the Republic to conquest by the First Order before the greater threat of the Yuuzhan Vong had emerged.

Sometime later Stazi sat down at a table with some of his contemporaries in the military. For many in the top branches of the imperial military work was never over. Unlike most of the guests present, the admirals were discussing their most recent plans for dealing with their state's enemies.

"These pirates are getting bolder" said Admiral Mersher, a Rattaakki male who was also Johnson's superior officer. "This 'Galactic Alliance' is stepping up its raids on our supply lines."

"Any military convoy they come across has been stripped of all weapons" Stazi replied. "They're clearly massing for an attack. The question is where."

"That's also the question for their location: where" General Yarkoon, a Faleen male, stated. "I thought our empire's knights were supposed to be skilled in higher seeing. What use are those mystics if they..."

"You really don't want to continue that train of thought."

The entire residence of the table turned to an elderly Miraluka dressed in dark armor Despite the lack of eyes (this forced all Miraluka to wear some cover over the upper half of their heads), everyone could tell the man was angry. Jerec, the head of the imperial knights.

"I can assure you that my knights are doing all we can to locate the base of these pirates. So perhaps we can stop the insults to our capabilities. I would hate to have to stain the floor of our empress' palace with the blood of an insubordinate officer."

Jerec walked off after making his not so subtle threat. The head of the imperial knights seemed to enjoy following in the footsteps of Darth Vader when it came to dealing with insubordinate military members. Stazi had once seen him force strangle a mere trooper for a slight joke.

"That man is one reason the pirates have any means of recruitment" Stazi commented once Jerec was out of earshot.

"No kidding" Mersher said. "The Alliance is only able to make accusations of bigotry and discrimination, or any kind of tyranny, due to the knights harsh discipline methods."

"That is not true" Stazi thought to himself, "and I feel that deep down you know that as well." The empire may no longer massacre innocents or build superweapons to destroy planets as means of cracking down on rebellions, but that didn't mean it wasn't tyrannical. Allowing free speech when it suited your goals while suppressing it if someone disagrees with you was one such way imperial officials were unknowingly encouraging people to join the GA. Much like the original empire, this one was also creating rebellion.

* * *

 **Euphrates**

The early morning sun cast a glare on Jacen's face as he piloted his speeder, the wind flowing through his hair. Fortunately for him, he had the foresight to lower the shader on his helmet so the glare wouldn't affect him. After living on the planet for several years now, he knew exactly how to handle the few issues he had to deal with. Indeed, his life on Euphrates was so ideal to him that the occasional inconvenience of piloting with the sun in his eyes was the only real issue he had.

Euphrates always had a temperate climate, no change of seasons. This made it an ideal agriworld since crops could be grown year around. It had whole continents of farmland that supplied much of Coruscant's food. Most of the farming was done by droids while people ran the whole operation. The farming population lived in scattered towns all over the planet to prevent too much industrialization. The only major city was the capitol of Tigris, which was built on a massive plateau on the planet's equator. It might not be a jungle planet like Onderon or the forest moon of Endor, but it still held the appeal of a world not spoiled by urbanization.

As he skimmed over the water of a crystal blue river, Jacen saw the outline of the town he'd received his call from. He was on his way to answer a call for aid dealing with 'nuisance' animals affecting a farm's production. The planet's farmland often mingled with the natural woodlands, and thus plant eating animals occasionally made a habit of taking food from more remote farms. Jacen was one of the so called scouts that dealt with these cases (why the companies in charge called them scouts he didn't know).

Though it wasn't a plant-eater he was looking for today. The report was that something was attacking herds of nerfs and uxibeasts. That meant Jacen was going to be dealing with one of Euphrates' predators. Only a few of them could threaten something like a nerf, and none of them were something that he wanted to deal with. However, he didn't have much of a choice. If this animal couldn't be dealt with humanely, the farmers would take matters into their own hands and shoot it.

Jacen stopped right at the edge of the town and got off his speeder, taking his helmet off and setting it on top of the seat. At the edge of town was a communications office that the farmers used to get in contact with him. The doors opened automatically as Jacen approached, and Jacen saw two people standing in the entrance room waiting for him. He knew these people well: Sef and Alyssa Starr had called for his help in the past.

"Jacen" Sef, a human in his forties, greeted him as he saw him. "Its good to see you again."

"Hello Sef, I understand you got an animal problem ."

"We certainly do" Alyssa said. Alyssa was a woman who, like her husband, was also in her forties.

"Well" Jacen said. "Lets get too it."

The trio took the Starr's craft to their farm on the other end of the town. Their house was small, fit only for a few people to live in. The shelter for their farm animals was much larger, and that's where they were headed.

"So" Jacen said once they approached the animal shelter. "What exactly am I up against today?"

"We're not sure" Alyssa said. She had grown up on this planet, though she was used to the city of Tigris. Therefore she didn't have as much familarity with the wildlife on her own home planet as Jacen. "All we really know is that its hitting our pockets hard. Each week, another one of our herd animals is taken."

"Yep" Sef added. "If you can't find it and stop it, we'll need to put it down."

"Well I certainly don't want that to happen. So, why don't you two show me where the last attack took place."

Sef and Alyssa led Jacen to a corner of their farm's pasture lands, walking through long blades of golden wheat and green grass. They also passed quite a few nerfs, the animals not even acknowledging them as they grazed on the plants at their feet. Finally, Jacen saw them stop at a section of fence that had been roughly demolished. There was blood splashed on both sides of the wrecked barrier and rough drag marks leading into the neighboring forest.

"Here we are" Sef said."The latest attack occurred right here. Whatever it was seems to have attacked a nerf that was standing right here."

Jacen knelt to get a closer look at the ground. Looking at the signs of the attack, it couldn't have occurred more than a few hours ago, most likely in final hours of the night. He looked at the damage done to the fence and noticed a small tuff of hair on a splintered section. Picking the hair off, he noticed it wasn't from the nerf that had been attacked. That immediately eliminated one of his three prime suspects: the akk dog didn't have hair.

"Well" Jacen said. "I can tell you it was either a nexu or a forest bear, and since the damage done to the fence doesn't seem large enough for a bear to get through, I can only guess that the animal responsible for this was a nexu."

"Do you want us to get one of our blasters" Alyssa asked.

"No need" Jacen responded. Reaching behind his back, he pulled his M-33 plasma shotgun from its holster. "If this nexu tries anything, I got plenty of defense."

* * *

Jacen started into the forest a few minutes later. As usual, he actively tracked his targets down. The farming community was in awe of his skills; some even called him a lothal wolf in human form. Of course, Jacen kept his real skills a secret. He didn't need attention drawn to his force powers, especially with the rumors his friends told him of the imperial knights methods of 'recruiting' someone. When he was around his clients, Jacen relied on the physical clues to help him locate the animals he was called to deal with. When it was just him, he relied on the force.

The sun was shining through the canopy of the trees, lighting the trail the animal left behind when it dragged the nerf off. A slight feeling of apprehension was starting to come to him; this nexu must be quite large if it managed to drag a nerf off like this, and that meant it would be much hungrier than a regular sized one. Also, in his experience with nexues, he learned that size was no limit to their swift reflexes, which were much faster than any human. It is true the force would forewarn him if the nexu started stalking him, but he still needed to be able face it.

A strange smell filled the air, and Jacen recognized it: musk mixed with vegetation. He was getting closer to this nexu's den, so close that he could now smell the animal's bedding. He could also see a trail of blood coming from some thick clusters of bushes that appeared to have been forcibly parted. Pushing his way through, Jacen came to the entrance of a cave in the side of a small rocky hill. The body of the dead nerf was just to the right of the entrance. He could see the bite marks left as the predator ate its meal. Suddenly, a warning sense from the force shot through his mind, leading him into assuming a defensive stance, his weapon raised. A low growl came from the left, and Jacen turned in time to see...

"By the force" Jacen whispered to himself. He'd been right about this creature's size. The nexu that was slowly walking towards him was almost the size of a sub-adult reek. At full height this thing would probably be as tall as him. Lowering his weapon to aim right at the nexu, Jacen slowly started to back up. Coming between a predator and its food was not a good idea.

The nexu continued its approach, hunched to the ground just ready to lunge at him. Jacen kept his eyes locked with the animal. He noticed that the nexu had a slight limp in its right front leg. That was probably the reason it was after the nerfs: if it couldn't hunt its natural prey, it would need to get food any way it could.

Suddenly, three small figures shot out of the den and ran to the nexu. The cubs hadn't seen him, so they ran straight to their mother as if nothing was wrong. This was the final piece of the puzzle. With three cubs to care for and her leg injury, this mother nexu had resorted to raiding the Starr's farms so she could keep herself and her cubs fed. Jacen's heart got lighter as he saw the cubs turn to face him. This mother was just trying to help her family, and Jacen had a soft spot for caring parents.

The nexu shifted her gaze from her cubs back to Jacen, and she resumed her threatening approach. Jacen, however, lowered his weapon and instead stretched out with the force, mentally reaching to touch the creature's mind. Once connected, he sent her assuring pulses of force energy, letting her know he had no intention of harming them. As the connection grew, the mother nexu became less aggressive until finally she stood down. Jacen's natural affinity with using the force to connect with animals came in handy on Onderon when he was growing up, and it was the same now in his line of work. Jacen preferred simply encouraging his targets to move further away from the farms, but that wasn't an option this time. This mother's injury meant she and her family would need more help.

Pulling a communicator from his pocket, Jacen contacted some friends at the local wildlife shelter. They would come out and take the nexues to a sanctuary where the mother's leg could be treated while her cubs would stay with her. Until they got here, Jacen would stay with the nexues. He was in no danger from them now.

* * *

Hours later, Jacen pulled his speeder next to a cantina near the center of Tigris. As he got off, he looked around at the surrounding city. Tigris was a typical urbanized city in the galaxy: skyscrapers dotted the city line as lines of sky traffic weaved through the various buildings. Unlike many other cities though, Tigris had some natural beauty to it as well. There were lines of trees that ran down the roads and walkways as well as parks scattered throughout the city. This is one reason Jacen chose Euphrates as the planet that he would settle on a few years ago. Of course, there were other worlds out there like Naboo that kept the urbanization down, but Euphrates for some reason just held some special appeal to him.

Walking into the cantina, he saw a bouncer standing next to the inner door. The trandoshan who stood in his way was someone Jacen didn't recognize. The bartender must have hired some new help.

"Don't cause any trouble" the bouncer said. This surprised Jacen; he hadn't met a trandoshan who spoke basic before. Most only spoke their reptilian local dialect.

Jacen walked through the door to enter the actual cantina. As usual, it was crowded with all sorts of sentient beings from all over the galaxy. Talz, twi'leks, togrutas, and all sorts of non-humans. There weren't many humans here, which would make spotting the people he was here to meet.

"Ah, Jacen."

Jacen turned to see the bartender waving to him. He smiled and walked up to him. "Hi. How is business today?"

"Its going well. I assume you're looking for Katarn and Ors?"

"You would be correct."

"They were heading to a table near the back right corner."

After thanking the bartender, Jacen headed to where his friends were said to be. It wasn't long before he saw them, though they noticed him before he could announce himself.

"Jacen!"

"Kyle!"

Kyle Katarn rose from his seat and embraced his friend. The two were quickly joined by Jan. After separating, all three friends sat at the table.

"So, how was your latest assignment" Jacen asked.

"It was long" Jan replied. "We spent two weeks on Nar Shaddaa looking for those gangs. The hutts probably won't be happy when they learn we defeated their main slavers for the evocii."

"You know" Kyle said. "After all the times we thwarted the hutts, you'd think they would hire better security. They still deploy the same tactics they have for the past century to deal with rivals."

"May I interrupt" a voice said. Jacen turned to see the bartender. "I assume you all would like something to drink?"

"Yes" Jacen said. "I'll have the naboo wine."

"Sorocco whiskey for me please" Jan said.

"I'll take Corellian ale, in a _clean_ glass" Kyle said.

"Excuse me?!"

"Oh sorry" Kyle said, looking a little flustered. "We spent a few weeks on the smuggler's moon, I'm used to saying that."

Kyle's apology saw the bartender return to his place up at the front to fill their order. Jacen was about to restart their conversation when a news broadcast appeared on the holo-screen, blocking out the swoop race that had been playing.

 _We interrupt your scheduled program to bring you this special report. At 0400 hours Coruscanti time a pirate raid was conducted on a military depot on the world of Chandrilla. The pirates made off with a small arsenal's worth of blasters and rocket launchers, as well as half the ammunition stored there. The pirates had already fled before imperial forces led by Admiral Mersher arrived. Although the military refused to comment, we strongly suspect this raid to be the work of the pirate group who call themselves the Galactic Alliance._

Jacen felt a slight smile form on his face. The empire, for all its military might, kept getting outmaneuvered b pirates. Not since the Zann Consortium had imperials had such a hard time with renegade forces.

"You know, those Alliance pirates don't seem like pirates to me" Kyle said.

"What makes you say that" a patron at a neighboring table asked as they leaned closer.

Kyle turned to address the person who spoke to them. "I used to be in the imperial academy. Those Alliance forces seem like they're led by a military genius, not some vong-sucking low life that raids civilian targets."

"You think there is more to these attacks" Jan asked.

"Yeah, I think there is more going on here" Kyle replied.

"Well" the patron said. "I really don't care who it is. Anyone who gives the empire a headache is ok to me."

"What?"

The patron's remark saw three other people at a neighboring table rise to their feet.

"Oh great" Jacen thought. He knew what was happening. The patron who made the remark turned towards his aggressors.

"Any who screw with the empire is ok with me. My brother was arrested a few years ago for a crime he didn't commit."

One of the assailants grabbed the patron by the collar of their shirt. "You treasonous low life." He turned to his comrades. "What do you say we teach this traitor a lesson?"

"Hey, leave him alone" Jan said as she got to her feet. "He's allowed to have his own opinion."

"Not if it goes against Arcina in any way."

Jacen and Kyle both got to their feet as well. "You 'thought-police' need to cool off" Jacen said. "Not everyone who disagrees with the empress is a traitor."

The assailants turned towards them. One of them cracked their knuckles in anticipation.

"Well, looks like we got a bunch of disloyal schuttas. What do you boys say we teach them a lesson."

The assailant holding the patron dropped them and lunged at Jan. Jan merely stepped aside, letting her attacker collide with the table. Kyle ducked under another assailant's punch, then grabbed him by his shirt and threw him over his shoulder to land right on top of his friend. Jacen finished the third attacker with a swift kick to their groin, sending them to the floor in pain.

The brief incident ended with the trandoshan bouncer and multiple Weequays showing up and grabbing all six people involved.

"Alright" the trandoshan said. "You all just wore out your welcome."

"Hold it." Everyone turned to see the bartender coming up to them. "I saw the whole thing start. The three of them attacked first. The others can stay."

Jacen and his friends were released while their assailants were literally thrown out of the bar. Jacen was disgusted by this sort of behavior. All over the galaxy, incidents like this were becoming all too common. The empress had a complex of perfection and many of the galaxy's citizens took their loyalty to the extreme. He'd even heard of an academy on the world of Corulag was burned down by an angry mob because a professor there had said something that was considered hateful to the empire.

* * *

Hours later, after Kyle and Jan headed back to their apartment, Jacen returned to his speeder and went back to his house, which was located on the extreme outskirts of Tigris. Upon getting home, he parked his craft in his garage and entered to find his loyal droid friend in his living room.

"Hello R2-D2. Any problems while I was gone?" His little friend beeped back a negative response. With that, he started to power his house down for the night. It had been so peaceful the last few weeks...

"Jacen"

Jacen grimaced as he heard his name called out from behind him. He should have known his good fortune wouldn't last. He turned and saw the spectral form of the man who just wouldn't stop pestering him. "Luke."

Luke Skywalker stood there, transparent as always. He also was still dressed in his Jedi clothing. He may have died years ago, but thanks to some ancient force power he'd learned he could still manifest himself to the living. "Jacen," he said. "Why do you have to be this stubborn?"

"I guess its another trait I inherited from my ancestors." Jacen responded irritably. "You just won't take a hint, will you?"

"You are wasting your power working on this farm world."

"I'm doing what I like."

"To an extent, but I can tell you also would like to do more than this. You can..."

"Its always the same bantha crud with you. 'Be a Jedi, honor your lineage.' When will you realize I won't follow that path?!"

Luke continued to stare at him. "There is no denying your heritage, Jacen. You need to live up to it."

Jacen was now getting angry. Luke always said the same things, no matter how many times he appeared to him. "Failing at your own life wasn't good enough for you? You need to try to drag your own _grandson_ into the same hole you wound up in?!"

"There you go with that word again. For one who says love for one's family is so important, you always point out the failures rather than successes of our past."

"What successes?! The Skywalker family is full of failures. Anakin failed the Jedi Order when he betrayed them for the sith, Leia failed her son as much as she failed the galaxy, and YOU failed to restore the Jedi, just like your so called champion Rey."

As usual, Luke looked devastated at the mention of Rey. Jacen knew that Rey failed as well when the Jedi she was trying to restore were wiped out. While Luke was long gone by the time she met her demise, he still blamed himself for her failing. "This is why you need to take up the family mantle Jacen."

"I won't!" Jacen shouted. "I'm not going to be a Jedi. They had a shot and failed, just like you. Let them stay gone."

"So why do you stand up to imperials who you see bullying others?"

Jacen was momentarily silent. "I do it because its the right thing to do. I don't need to be a jedi to stand up for what is right."

Luke smirked at him. "You always seem to stumble when I point out that you already act like a jedi at times. Why not make it official?"

"I'm not interested in going down your path."

"So all those times you spent as a kid playing jedi and sith with your friends on Onderon were meaningless?"

"Enough! No matter how often you come here, I won't change my mind about this! Now go away and don't come back this time!"

"I won't stop until you decide to quit being stubborn and take up the way of the Jedi like you are supposed to."

For some reason, Luke's continued harassment struck a much greater nerve this time than in the past. He couldn't explain why, but this time Jacen wanted to get the point across to his ancestor. He spread his legs apart, slightly lowering himself as if he was readying to spring, and summoned the power of the force into his hands, poised to unleash it. "Last warning."

"You can't hurt me Jacen."

"Not trying to. Leave, or I leave the force. I will cut myself off from the force if it means being rid of you."

Luke's expression finally changed to one of horror. "You wouldn't dare. You use your powers in your work."

"I can do so without it. I don't need the Force to help the farmers on this world."

"You would cut yourself off from the Force just to be rid of me?"

"Yes."

After a moment of glaring at each other, Luke finally began to fade. But he didn't disappear until he made one last comment. "You can't possibly be a greater disappointment to this family Jacen. You're a disgrace to us all."

Jacen smiled smugly as his grandfather's spirit was departing. "Yes," he said, "and I couldn't be happier."

* * *

 **I would like any of you who would have suggestions to send a message. I have a full outline on how this is going to go, but I also like hearing what you think. On a related topic, please be sure to review each new update.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm alive. Sorry for the long wait; writers block sucks.**

 **I'd like to thank author Jedi Jesi Jiin, who is my new beta reader.**

A few months passed and Luke had not returned to pester Jacen again. He was extremely glad to be rid of his ancestor after all the times he kept appearing to him. He hoped that Luke finally got the message that he wanted nothing to do with the Jedi. He may have hero worshiped his ancestor growing up but upon learning the truth of how he had died he came to greatly despise his grandfather. His feelings towards his ancestor were the reason why he hid his last name from all of his friends, even Kyle and Jan.

A few days after his final encounter with Luke, Jacen received a pleasant surprise when he was told by Kyle and Jan they were going to stay on Euphrates longer than expected. Apparently there was a lack of jobs they were willing to take. Much of the time they were hired to attack Hutt cartel operations. His best friends were extremely ethical and refused to work jobs that they considered morally wrong. Indeed, that was why Kyle left the Imperial academies. He was disgusted with the number of times the Empire's military put ethics aside and did things that he considered wrong. When he met Jan, he was inspired to take the final step and left the military. His departure had caused great disappointment to his trainers and professors, who considered him the most promising member of his class.

The three were back in the one of the cantinas that dotted the city of Tigris. Thankfully they had not encountered any more fanatical Imperial loyalists. Kyle was recounting an encounter he and Jan had with some of the Hutts' enforcers.

"So than Jan landed a sucker punch right in the Weequay's..."

"Excuse me" Jan said as she stood up. "I'll be back, just gotta take care of business." Jan headed in the direction of the refresher.

"You know Kyle," Jacen said. "You and Jan have been together for years now. I'm surprised you didn't ask her to marry you yet."

"Well, I would like to ask her, but I don't think she'll say yes. I mean, we are in love and we live together, but I don't know how she'd react to the idea of marriage."

"It sounds like you're afraid of being rejected. Kyle, it's like I said; you've been together for years. If you ask her, I'm sure she'll say yes."

"Who are you to give me advice on relationships anyway? If I recall, the last girl you dated up and left the planet."

Jacen felt a slight twinge of annoyance at Kyle's remark. "Dani wasn't a resident of Euphrates. She and her family were just visiting the world." Dani Quee was a young woman who Jacen met about three years ago while she was visiting distant relatives in a family reunion. Jacen had been quite smitten with her and they had dated for a short while, but sadly she couldn't stay for long. Looking back, he sometimes wondered if his dating her was why her family left. Dani's mother had not approved of her dating him, and it was shortly after he and Dani had drunkenly fallen in bed that she chose to take her family home to Kuat.

"I'm just saying" Kyle said. "You seem to have had an unlucky streak when it comes to dating."

"Is that so" a voice from behind them said. The two friends turned to see a beautiful young woman standing next to them. She was around their age, somewhere in her mid to late twenties, with a slim body and blonde hair that flowed down to where her neck connected to her head. Jacen recognized her as a new hostess whom was hired at the cantina a few days ago.

"Uh, may we help you" Jacen asked.

"Just couldn't help but hear your conversation. I find it wrong that someone as cute as you has bad luck with romance."

Jacen felt himself redden slightly. "Well, I thank you but I'm afraid it's true."

The hostess smiled. "Well, that's just not right."

"I agree" Kyle said, though Jacen sensed a slight mischievous tone in his voice. "My boy here is such a great guy. It's a real shame that he isn't dating anyone. Of course, a cute girl like yourself might... OUCH!"

Kyle's attempt at embarrassing Jacen was cut off when Jan, who had returned from the refresher to hear her boyfriend complement the hostess' beauty, grabbed him by the ear and pulled back.

"What is this, Kyle" Jan asked, a look of mock outrage on her face.

"Nothing, nothing at all" Kyle winced.

Jan smiled and let go of his ear.

The hostess laughed at the scene that just played out before her. "Well, I gotta get back to work." She turned to Jacen and flashed a dazzling smile. "See you later, handsome."

The hostess walked back towards the bar, leaving Jacen and Kyle wondering about who they just spoke too.

"Well Jacen" Kyle said. "Maybe I spoke too soon about your luck with women."

* * *

 **Coruscant**

In the heart of the Imperial Palace, Arcina sat on her throne high above the floor. She was in a meditative state, basking in the raw power of the Force in and around her. When one was in tune with the Force they were capable of anything. Arcina had spent many years growing stronger and stronger in the Force through training and other methods. In doing so she had discovered powers that most force users, Jedi and Sith alike, were not capable of imagining. It was through these unusual force powers that Arcina was able to live so long and how she retained her youthful appearance despite her age.

However despite all her powers she was now facing a challenge that was surprisingly difficult: she was attempting to locate the source of a massive disturbance that had occurred weeks ago. She recognized the disturbance as a force user summoning their powers, but what truly surprised her about this presence was just how powerful it was. In all her years she had never once felt such a blinding sense in the Force. Unfortunately by the time she had begun trying to locate the source of the disturbance, it stopped and it hadn't appeared again. She knew only an extremely powerful Force user could give off a disturbance like that, and she was determined to bring this Force user under her control. But first she needed to find them.

For this reason she had dispatched several teams of her Imperial knights to the sector of the galaxy where she sensed the disturbance. However, to her increasing frustration, none of them had reported anything yet. It was as if this individual knew they were being hunted and was hiding.

She was pulled out of her medication and thoughts by a beeping sound coming from the arm of her chair. Opening her eyes, she turned towards the sound and hit the button on the command console. An image of a man in his mid sixties appeared before her.

"Yes Jerec" she said. "Anything to report?"

"My Empress" the Imperial knight replied. "We finally received a report back from one of the Imperial knights we dispatched to the Euphrates sector. My knight says that she has located a person who calls himself Jacen, and that he is the source of the disturbance we felt."

Arcina smiled to herself. "Well done" she said. "Inform your knight to bring this man to me alive."

"It shall be done my Empress" Jerec said as he bowed. The image disappeared as the transmission ceased.

Arcina returned to her meditative stance, her mind at ease knowing her target was finally located. Basking once more in the power of the Force around her.

* * *

 **Euphrates, two days later**

Jacen pulled his speeder into the garage of his house, having just returned from yet another nuisance animal call. Upon powering his craft down, he dismounted and then moved to the back. R2-D2 was securely fastened to the storage compartment on the back of his speeder.

"All right buddy" Jacen said. "Let's get you off of there."

Jacen removed the harnesses and disengaged the lock allowing him to pick up his mechanical friend and set him on the ground. R2 let out a series of beeping noises in his own droid-speak language.

"Yes R2, I know it was kind of a bumpy ride this time and I apologize for that."

Jacen reached down and patted R2 on the head . The little droid was an old friend of the family. Jacen knew he wasn't a living creature but that didn't matter to him. R2 had been part of his ancestors' family stretching back to before Anakin Skywalker. He wasn't entirely sure how R2 came into his grandmother's possession, but quite frankly he didn't care. R2 was one of the few links to his family's past that he could not bear to part with. He was a much needed companion and friend and always reliable.

A few minutes upon returning home, Jacen heard his communicator and going off. Pulling it out of a pocket from his jacket, he hit the command button and an image of the waitress he had met a few days ago appeared. " Oh, hi Sariss."

" Hi Jacen" she said. "I just got off of work early. Is that offer to have a drink with you still good?"

" Sure" Jacen said. "You do remember my address right?"

"Of course. Are you there right now?

"I am. You can come on over right now."

" Great. I'll be over there in a few minutes."

The image disappeared and Jacen returned his communicator to his jacket. "Hey R2" he called out. "We're gonna be having company soon."

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of Tigris, Kyle and Jan were just finishing a late lunch in their apartment. The topic of discussion had been only one thing: Kyle's recent 'bad feelings.' For the past few months, Kyle had experienced some strange premonition-like feelings of a massive change coming. It was similar to the instincts that he had when they were on missions. If there were unforeseen complications that came up during a job, Kyle got a classic bad feeling prior to their encounter with it. It was these feelings that usually allowed them to escape or defeat a situation that would usually spell disaster for anyone else. What Kyle was going through recently though, while similar, seemed like something much larger than what they had seen in the past.

"I'm telling you Jan, these are getting worse. It's like something, or someone, is trying to reach out to me. I... it's hard to describe, but I guess the closest thing would be like someone shouting at you to get your attention."

Jan was silent for a moment. "Well, I'm not sure what to say Kyle. I never had a bad feeling like yours, so I'm not sure what this is."

Kyle seemed slightly crestfallen. Jan was usually the one who figured the puzzles out, at least she was when Jacen wasn't around. "Well" he said in his humorous tone. "I guess I'll just need to seek out an Imperial Knight. Maybe the Force is trying to tell me something."

Kyle expected Jan to laugh, so he was caught off guard when her eyes widened. "Is something wrong?"

"Kyle, what you just said. Maybe that really is the answer."

"... You mean, the Force? Jan, get real. I'm twenty eight. If I was supposed to have a connection to a mystical energy field, why would it appear now?"

"I can't say, though it would explain some things that we always wondered about: our uncanny streak of escaping anyone trying to space us on our jobs."

Jan collected their plates and utensils and headed to their apartment's kitchen to wash them, leaving Kyle alone to contemplate what his girlfriend had said. Was is possible that he had a connection to the Force? He had never thought much about it, but it would explain his instinctual actions...

"Kyle."

A voice caused him to spin in his seat. Looking behind, Kyle saw a spectral form of a man in his late fifties. He looked like an older version of himself, except for the beard which was much more grown out than his own. He was in shock. "...Father?"

"Yes son" the image of Morgan Katarn replied. "It is really me."

Kyle stood and approached the transparent image of his late father. "How... how are you here? Am I going crazy?"

"No, my son. This is an ancient technique of the force."

"The..."

"Kyle" Morgan interrupted. "I don't have much time, so you need to listen to me. Yes, you do have a connection to the force. Your friend Jacen does as well."

"Ja...

"Kyle, we can't waste time with questions now. I'm here to warn you: Jacen is currently in great danger. A member of the Imperial knights is on their way to his home to kidnap him and take him before the Empress. You must get to him before that happens."

"Why would the Empress want Jacen?"

"She wants all Force sensitives in the galaxy in her Imperial knights. Those they can't turn to their side are killed to ensure they can't become a threat to Arcina. The Empire has recently learned of Jacen's powers, and if they can't persuade him to join their cause, they will kill him."

Kyle was so horrified he couldn't speak for a moment. His father simply continued.

"Kyle, I will appear to you later to explain what I can. Right now, you must find Jacen. Now go!"

His father faded from sight, leaving Kyle in silence. Jan reentered the room to see Kyle standing with his back turned.

"Kyle, were you talking to someone?"

Kyle turned to Jan with a pale face. "Jan, we need to find Jacen right now."

"What are..."

"I'll explain on the way! Right now, we gotta move!"

* * *

"So how long have you lived on Euphrates?"

Jacen and Sariss were sitting on his couch, enjoying a bottle of Corellian brandy. She had arrived about half an hour ago.

"I've lived here for a few years. I was born and raised on the world of Onderon"

"Onderon, really?"

"Yes that's how I got my love of natural creatures. There are so many forms of wildlife on Onderon."

"Aren't most of them man eaters?"

"Not all of them, but their most famous wildlife is. Drexl, zakkegs, bomas, yes they are notorious carnivores."

"Out of curiosity, how long have you had that droid? That's a pretty arcane design."

"He's been in my family for generations now. I always have him upgraded to ensure that while his appearance may be archaic, R2himself is top of a line." Jacen reached over the side of the couch and patted R2, who was sent the currently sitting on the side of it, on the head.

"Oh dear" Sariss said. "It looks like we're out of the brandy already. No problem, I brought more."

"Actually Sariss, I was thinking maybe we should stop drinking." Jacen was never an extremely heavy drinker, but he had drunk a little more than he normally did when Sariss was here. Now however, he was starting to feel very strange. He thought he felt the Force warning him in his mind earlier, saying that something was off, but he thought it was just the alcohol in the system.

"Are you OK, Jacen?"

"I don't know, I feel kind of... well, a little disoriented actually."

All of the sudden, the disorientation started getting worse. "What is going on?" he thought to himself. "It's like something is trying to knock me out. This isn't how alcohol intoxication works."

Sariss started laughing lightly, and Jacen fought through the pain in his head to turn towards wasn't a lighthearted laugh, but the laugh of someone insidious.

"Well, what you're feeling right now is a type of knock out gas in liquid form. Anyone who hasn't been injected with the antidote like me will lose consciousness within a minute of consumption."

"What..."

Sariss stood up and pulled something from her personal bag. It was a cylinder shaped metal tube that... "No!" Jacen exclaimed. Sariss was holding a lightsaber. "An Imperial knight!"

"That's right" Sariss laughed. "I'm not sure how you remained hidden for so long, but the Empress herself sensed your power in the Force a few weeks ago."

"Blast it Luke" Jacen said to himself as he fought to stay conscious. He normally had his presence hidden in the Force, but he must have slipped when he argued with his grandfather.

He could worry about that another time. Right now, he needed to concentrate on staying awake. His training would allow him to resist poison in his system, but he also had to focus to keep himself up.

Jacen suddenly felt himself lift off the floor. Turning in midair, he saw Sariss with her hand raised, clearly using the Force to hold him. "Well, now it's off to Coruscant. Empress Arcina is so eager to meet the one who caught her attention."

"NOOOOOOO!"

Jacen focused as hard as he could and thrust his open palm towards his attacker. A blast from the force erupted forth, sending Sariss flying towards the wall of Jacen's living room. He fell to the floor with a loud thud while Sariss collided with the wood, slumping in a heap. His mind still blurry, Jacen reached for the bag Sariss dropped, feeling for anything that felt like a container. He quickly pulled a small vial out with the word "antidote" on it. Uncorking it, Jacen swallowed the contents in one gulp. He then struggled to his feet.

R2 rolled up to his side, allowing Jacen to use him for support. "Thanks buddy. Let's get to the speeder."

Jacen had to use R2 for support while he walked. But no sooner had they got to the garage then Jacen felt himself fly off the floor once more. He sailed right over his craft and hit the opposite wall, where he was pinned once more with the force, failing to notice that he accidentally hit the controls for the garage opening. Jacen looked up to see R2 getting thrown across the garage to land on a shelf, which collapsed from the droid's weight. Sariss came into the garage, a look of pure rage on her face.

"Nice try, but it will take more than that to get away from me."

Jacen felt himself getting angrier as the affects of the antidote started to kick in, clearing the fogginess of his mind. He needed a little longer until he could properly fight back.

Sariss approached him once more, this time with an injector. "Luckily for me I came prepared. The narcotic is more potent when injected right into the bloodstream, anyway."

Jacen struggled to strike out with the Force once more, but Sariss was forcing back harder than he could in that moment. She finally stood next to him and placed the injector on his arm.

Neither noticed the sound of a rapidly approaching speeder.

* * *

Kyle and Jan were speeding towards Jacen's house, weaving in and out of other speeders hovering over the roads.

"So Jacen is Force sensitive also?" Jan asked.

"Apparently" Kyle responded as he drew his briar blaster from its holster. "I just hope we can get there in time."

"You clearly aren't seeing where we're going. His house is right in front of us."

Kyle looked ahead and saw the outline of Jacen's house coming up. As they neared the residence, he saw the garage open from a distance. Upon getting closer, however, he saw Jacen pinned against the wall, and the hostess from the cantina raising what looked like a blaster to him.

"Jan, stop us right in front of the house!"

Kyle took aim, and the second they stopped Kyle fired. He was aiming at the treacherous girl's head, though he ended up shooting what she was holding. The attacker cried out and fell back while Jacen fell to the floor.

Kyle and Jan jumped out of their speeder, blasters drawn. Sariss was getting up again.

"Get down!" Jan shouted.

Sariss turned and cast a glare of rage at the two of them. Raising her hand (which was burned and searing with pain from the explosion of the injector) she sent a blast of force energy towards the interlopers. Kyle and Jan were thrown on their backs.

"Well, you were right Kyle" Jan said. "That person is an Imperial knight."

Kyle got back up and took up his remaining weapon; a vibroblade that he kept since his days in the academy. "Get to Jacen. I'll handle her."

Kyle charged, his melee weapon raised. Sariss used her uninjured hand to draw her lightsaber. She activated it, and a dark blue blade materialized. She met Kyle's attack, and the two began to duel. Although Sariss was thrown off using her odd hand, she still was able to fight well. Kyle thrust his blade at her abdomen, only for Sariss to swing her weapon and deflect the jab. She followed with a swing at his neck, but Kyle ducked and countered with a swing at her shoulder.

"Not bad" Sariss remarked as she blocked Kyle's latest strike. "For an inferior."

"I was ranked top in my class at the academy" he replied.

As Kyle and the Imperial knight continued to fight, Jan ran to Jacen's side. "Jacen, are you alright?"

"I'll be fine, thanks Jan" he told her as he forced through the cloudiness of his mind to get back on his feet. Luckily, it was almost completely g one. He could see and focus much better. "The treacherous schutta tried to drug me."

As Jacen stood back up, he used the Force, ignoring Jan's surprised gasp, to summon his plasma shotgun into his grasp. Holding the barrel in his left hand while placing his right hand on the holster, he swung in the direction on his attacker. To his horror, he saw her send a bolt of force lightning from her injured hand at Kyle, which allowed her to force his weapon out of his grip. Kyle fell to his knees, and Sariss raised her saber to deliver the final blow. Raising his own weapon quickly, Jacen took aim and fired.

Multiple bolts of energy exploded from the tip of Jacen's weapon, and all found their target. Sariss let out a pained cry as she felt the blasts from the shotgun tear into her back, as well as the back of her head. One even strayed just enough to hit her lightsaber, which exploded, taking half of her arm with it. Sariss fell face forward on top of Kyle, and Jacen felt her presence in the Force completely disappear.

Kyle shrugged the now dead body off him as he returned to standing up. He then ran to Jacen and Jan. "Are you two alright?"

"Yeah" Jacen replied. "I'm fine. Thank you both for the save."

"Well, I think I also owe you thanks for stopping her from cutting me down" Kyle said.

Jacen turned to Jan. "What are you two doing here" he asked.

But as Jan opened her mouth to reply, a sound cut through the air, leading the group to all turn towards the road Kyle and Jan had just come up. It sounded like sirens, and soon what was making the sounds came into view: at least four large Imperial security speeders were heading right for them all.


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter was edited after publication to insert page breaks.**

 **Be sure to review, that keeps me motivated to update sooner.**

* * *

Jacen wasn't sure what to do in that moment. Imperial security forces were heading towards his house, he and his friends were standing outside heavily armed with an imperial knight he had just shot lying dead at their feet. They would almost certainly be arrested, and the instant the imperial knights found out about their fallen colleague they'd swarm him while he was in custody. Glancing towards Jan, he saw she had what he could only assume was the exact same look he had on his face. That was not a good sign: she was more level-headed than him and Kyle. If she thought they were karked, they probably were.

The speeders came to a stop right next to Kyle and Jan's, and several imperial soldiers dismounted while a larger hover craft slowed to a stop nearby. Jacen recognized that as a transport craft often used for groups of soldiers. The imperials, dressed in military uniforms rather than battle armor, stalled when they noticed Sariss' body. They drew their blasters and pointed at Jacen and his friends.

"Officer" Kyle said. "This isn't what it looks like."

"We were only after you for speeding in heavy traffic" the lead officer said, his weapon pointed right at Kyle's head. "But now you're going down for murder."

"Put your hands on your heads now" another officer said. As he said this, the transport opened a huge door and at least thirty more security personnel came out. These people weren't dressed in uniform, but the dark blue Mandalorian style blast armor that was used on active military duty. Arcina's empire had done away with the fear inducing stormtrooper armor of the old empire and the first order in exchange for a design that was much easier for armed troops to integrate with galactic society.

Kyle and Jan were slowly doing as they said. Jacen, however, was not. He knew that if he allowed himself to be arrested, he'd be a sitting naboo duck. There had to be a way they could get out of this.

"You! Hands up now or we'll stun you!"

In that moment, Jacen made a split second decision that he would no doubt look back on with amazement at his own idiocy.

"I'm sorry officer" he said. "But I know exactly what the empire will do to me if I allow you to take me in."

The entire line of officers raised their blasters at him, expecting him to do the same with his shotgun. Instead, Jacen confused them by lowering himself and placing his weapon on the ground. Stunned at his apparent surrender after saying he wouldn't, the entire line was caught off guard when Jacen threw his arms out towards them. Suddenly, the blaster pistols were torn out of their hands as Jacen used the force. The weapons hovered in mid air as they were turned on their owners.

The approaching group of officers from the transport stopped momentarily at the sight before them. Jacen turned his head slightly to face them. "I'd back off if I were you. I remotely switched the settings on these, and if any of you try anything all your comrades will get a shot in the head."

"Jacen" Jan shouted. "What in the name of the force are you doing?!"

"Trying to get us out of this mess" he responded.

"Jacen" Kyle said. "You realize you're digging us deeper into this hole, right? Now you're guilty of assault on security."

"Well did you have any ideas?!"

Suddenly, a noise from the garage drew the attention of all those present at the scene. Jacen knew it was his speeder, but he couldn't see who was in the pilot seat. The speeder suddenly shot out of the garage, causing Jacen, his friends, and the group of security officers to throw themselves to the ground. Jacen looked up and, to his astonishment, saw a droid controlling the craft.

"R2?!"

R2 let out a long whistle like noise in response as his dome like head spun on his body. Suddenly the speeder started to spin as it hovered above the imperials. One of the officers was getting back on their feet and was hit right in the chest, sending them flying back several feet before landing flat on their back. The rest of the officers hugged the ground tighter after seeing their comrade get knocked down.

Jacen recovered from his shock first and turned to Kyle and Jan. "Let's go! Now's our chance!"

Picking up their weapons, the three of them ran towards Jan's speeder. One of the security officers trapped under the joy-riding R2 noticed that Jacen had dropped all the weapons he took from them and managed to reach their personal blaster. The officers who weren't trapped under R2 started to fire at the fleeing trio as they all jumped into their speeder. As the trapped officer rolled on their back, they noticed Jacen had yet to get in as he was covering his friends. Aiming at his assailant's back, he prepared to fire.

Jacen got the warning from the force at the perfect moment. Turning, he saw one of the officers he disarmed was about to shoot him. Calling on the force once again, Jacen spun one of the blasters still on the ground and remotely pulled the trigger. A stun blast (Jacen having bluffed about switching the settings earlier) came from the barrel and hit the officer, causing them to slump down, temporarily paralyzed.

Jan and Kyle had their speeder started by the time Jacen jumped in. "Alright, floor it!"

Jan gunned the engine and they took off, followed shortly after by R2 in Jacen's speeder. The majority of the imperials all stood up and collected their weapons while a few tended to their comrade who had been knocked back.

"Are you alright?" one of them asked the officer on the ground as they applied bacta patches to their comrade's chest.

The downed officer groaned as he lifted his head slightly. "I just got the crud knocked out of me by a joy riding astromech droid. What do you think?"

* * *

"So where are we going?" Jacen asked his friends as they fled the scene at his house.

"The spaceport seems like a good idea to me Jan." Kyle said to his girlfriend.

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Jan responded. "We gotta get off Euphrates."

Jacen turned his head slightly to look at his loyal friend R2. It was actually quite hilarious to see what many considered an outdated droid model driving a speeder. It wasn't uncommon to see droids acting as chauffers, though an astromech was not a typical pilot.

"So Jacen" Kyle said. "I think an explanation..."

Kyle was cut off by a shot that ricocheted off the front of the speeder. All three turned and saw a line of imperial officers at a makeshift roadblock. That had clearly been a warning shot. The officers were all aiming at them from behind a shield powered by several pole-like generators that spanned across the road their speeder was hovering on.

"Keep going Jan."

"Jacen, are you mad" Jan asked.

"Just trust me."

Jacen raised his hands and made a sweeping motion from the center of his body to both sides. Suddenly, the entire roadblock flew to both sides, the barriers disappearing as the generators lost their connections to the others. The officers, acting on instinct when they saw their one defense against a head on collision getting tossed aside, either threw themselves to the ground or jumped out of the road.

The speeder piloted by Jan sped right past them, followed by the one piloted by R2. One of the officers happened to see R2, and after being momentarily stunned, he got on his units' comm frequency.

"Captain, is there any chance I can start that furlough early?"

"What" the response came. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, either the stress of this job has me cracking up, or I just saw a droid hijack a speeder."

* * *

After half an hour of dodging imperial patrols, Jacen and his friends finally got to the spaceport near the center of Tigris. After flying right through the check point, they came to a stop right at the base of Kyle's ship; a Suwanatek prototype fighter-freighter that Kyle named the Raven's Claw. The ship had a long body with two sets of wings arranged in a fashion that gave it the appearance of a giant X-Wing.

Unexpectedly, Jacen jumped out of the speeder as Jan tried to bring it into their ship.

"Jacen, what are you doing?"

"I'm not leaving without R2 Jan."

Seconds after he said this, they all heard a strange sound coming from the circular opening of the hangar above them. They all turned to see Jacen's speeder come flying into the hangar, a long whistle sound coming from R2 as the craft plummeted to the ground. R2, however, activated his own hover pads placed on the bottom of his mechanical legs, allowing him to float in the air while the speeder hit the ground, breaking apart the second it came in contact. The little droid floated towards Jacen, who embraced his mechanical companion when he reached the ground.

"Glad you got here too, buddy. You owe me a new speeder."

A quick jolt from the Force alerted Jacen to approaching danger. Looking up, he saw port security and imperial troopers rushing in. This time, there wasn't any warning from them. They merely opened fire.

Jacen threw himself behind the loading ramp of the Raven's Claw, R2 wealing up into the ship. Although he grabbed his shotgun, Jacen quickly chose not to use it. These officers were just trying to do their job. Instead he once more reached out with the Force. The troopers heard the ceiling above them start to shake. Realizing what was happening, they fled into the port as fast as they could. Jacen then ran up the ramp into Kyle's ship.

"I'm in" he shouted.

"Finally" Jan's voice came from the cockpit. A moment later, the ramp was raised and the ship was rising into the air.

Jacen ran to the front of the ship and sat behind Kyle as he and Jan flew their craft higher and higher until they finally left Euphrates' atmosphere. The stars came into view almost immediately, the only obstruction to them was the multiple moons orbiting Euphrates and the Imperial station that served as a checkpoint for space traffic.

A warning siren from Jan's left coupled with a flash of red; the alarm that they were being pursued.

"Raven's Claw" came the voice of the station commander. "You are to alter flight and dock on the station. If you do not, you will be disabled or destroyed."

Ignoring the order, Kyle looked at the craft's radar. "Looks like we got three TIE Pursuits on our tail."

The TIE Pursuits were the Empire's latest starfighter. Modeled after the design of Grand Admiral Thrawn's TIE Defender, it had four sets of wings instead of three giving it the appearance of a cross between the archaic X-Wing and Tie fighter designs. Extremely maneuverable, equipped with laser and ion cannons as well as concussion missiles, and adequate shielding, it was essentially the terror of space as far as fighters were concerned.

"Listen guys" Jacen said. "You two need to plot our hyperspace route. I'll handle the TIEs."

"The ship doesn't have any rear guns" Kyle said.

"You'll just have to trust me."

"Jacen" Jan said.

"Trust me!"

"Why won't you tell us what you're planning?"

"Because I don't trust you" Jacen sarcastically said.

Closing his eyes, Jacen once more reached out with the Force.

* * *

"Squad leader to command, the craft has not complied. Permission to engage?"

"Granted."

The lead pilot of the squadron prepared to fire, charging his craft's lasers. Suddenly, he was lurched in his seat as his fighter came to a stop, followed by his wingmen.

"What the... how did my ship..."

Looking at the power readings, the squad leader was astounded to see all the power in his engines had just…. failed.

Looking back up at his target, the leader of the squadron stared impotently as his target escaped into hyperspace.

* * *

"What just happened? Those TIEs just came to a halt."

"I disabled their engines" Jacen replied to Kyle, as if it was the norm for people to do so.

Jan turned around in her seat after hitting the hyperdrive. "OK Jacen, it's time for answers."

"I agree."

After gathering in the quarters of the ship, Jacen sat down next to R2 while Jan and Kyle sat on the couch opposite to his seat.

"Alright. What do you want to know?"

"How about the whole force sensitive issue" Kyle said. "How did you get so good at using the force? What are you, a former imperial knight?"

"No, I was just very well trained by my grandmother."

"Your grandmother" Jan asked.

"Yes. Ok, before you ask anything else, there is something you both should know…"

Jacen stalled a moment before he continued. "I once told you that I didn't know my family name, that I was orphaned and had no memory of my parents."

"Yeeaaahhh" Kyle said, uncertain of where Jacen was going with this.

"None of that was true. I do know my last name; I just couldn't tell you."

"Why" Jan asked.

"My last name would draw too much attention."

"And that would be" Jan asked.

"…. Skywalker. My name is Jacen Skywalker."

His two closest friends just sat there in stunned silence, their mouths agape. Finally, Kyle spoke. "Sky…."

"Yes" Jacen interrupted. "Those Skywalkers. The great jedi family, the one that saw the rise of Anakin and Luke. The great heroes of the galaxy, all that."

"Ooooookay" Jan said. "I see why you wouldn't want that known to the galaxy when the empire is in control."

"It actually had little to do with the empire."

Kyle looked at Jacen like he had just grown a second head. "You're kidding, right Jacen?"

"No. I did want to keep a low profile with the imperial knight 'recruitment' methods in full force, but the real reason I didn't want anyone to know is because I'm actually ashamed of my heritage."

"Ashamed?! What could you have to be ashamed of?"

"Plenty. When I was little, I hero worshipped my ancestors, my grandfather Luke in particular."

R2 let out a mournful sound at the mention of his long-gone friend. Jacen patted him on the head before continuing. Or at least, he was going to continue until Jan spoke up.

"Wait. You're Luke Skywalker's grandson? I wasn't aware he had any children."

"Not many in the galaxy knew. Actually, I'm not sure even _he_ knew he had a son, my father."

"How could he not know he had a son" Kyle asked.

"Simple; he wasn't there when my grandmother had my dad."

"You're…. hold on, who _was_ your grandmother?"

"Her name was Mara Jade. She was originally an assassin for the original empire under Palpatine."

"An assassin" Jan asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Specifically, she was the emperor's hand. Wait, that might not be right. She might have been an inquisitor. I can't remember exactly."

"Anyway" Kyle said. "How did a former imp assassin wind up with the last jedi?"

"She tried to kill him."

Once more, his friends looked at him in shock. Jacen laughed. "Yeah, I reacted the same way when she told me. After the battle of Endor, Mara was left alone in the galaxy. Her master was dead, she had no one. The majority of the empire's leadership wasn't even aware she existed. She had to strike out on her own. She finally found work with a small alliance of smugglers run by someone named Talon Karrde. It would be many years later before she met Luke."

"How did they meet" Jan asked.

"Luke was on a mission for his newly reestablished order. He had left his senior apprentices in charge of his academy while he pursued his goal alone. Mara, by coincidence, was in the system he had traveled to. When she found out about him, she went after him in a starfighter. The ensuing dogfight saw both crash on the planet. Wherever they crashed, they were forced to work together to survive.

"While they were stuck together, Mara confessed to Luke who she was and why she tried to kill him. Luke almost immediately forgave her, and helped free her from the final ties to the emperor that were still on her. They remained together for a month until they were finally rescued, and at some point during that time, they fell in love and conceived my dad. They went separate ways, intending to meet up again. Mara intended to return to Karrde and inform him she would no longer be working with him since she intended to join Luke's new jedi order."

"So what happened" Jan asked.

"Kylo Ren is what happened. It was shortly after Luke returned from that mission that his nephew betrayed him. I'm sure you know what happened after that."

"Of course" Kyle said. "He went into exile and didn't come out until he made his last stand against the first order."

"Yeah, or so the galaxy thinks."

Kyle and Jan were quite confused at Jacen's latest remark. "What do you mean" Jan asked. "The whole galaxy knows about Luke's last stand."

"It's actually not true. Luke did hold off the first order, but he wasn't there in person."

"Jacen" Kyle said. "What you're saying makes no sense. How could Luke fight the first order if he wasn't there?"

"Luke's history has been romanticized. There is a lot that people say he did that he really didn't. His last stand, for example. He was casting an image of himself to the planet rather than going there himself."

"Casting an image?" Jan asked.

"Yeah, but you might understand better if I explain the whole story. Luke felt horribly guilty after the massacre of all his students by his own nephew. He went into exile until he was found by the jedi hopeful Rey. However, at that point he was in a self-defeated state. He was determined that the jedi order end with him. While he gave Rey a few lessons, he later drove her off after she angered him. The next time anyone saw him was when he made his last stand. However, he actually never left his place of exile. There is a technique in the force that allows one to create an image of himself anywhere they want. That is what Luke did: he cast an image of himself hoping his nephew would take the bait and forget the resistance."

"So… he really wasn't there at all" Kyle asked.

"Yep. Also, the technique he was using is what killed him. Using the force image technique for too long is fatal, and Luke used it so long he died from it. In other words, he was such a coward he couldn't face Kylo Ren in person."

Jan and Kyle were flabbergasted. Luke Skywalker's last stand was what inspired the galaxy to rally against the first order. Now Jacen had just told them that it wasn't actually true.

Jacen continued. "Something else is the fact that he pushed his nephew to fall in the first place. Apparently, Luke approached his nephew while Ben was asleep and sensed there was a lot of darkness in him already. Even though his nephew hadn't done anything wrong yet, Luke instinctively decided his nephew was already a threat and tried to murder him in his sleep."

"WHAT?!" Kyle leapt from his seat. "Are you saying the man who felt _Darth Vader_ could be redeemed chose to try to kill his nephew without giving him a chance to choose his own path?"

"Yep, and that was what caused his nephew to turn. He woke up to find his uncle, the man who was more of a father to him than Han Solo was, standing over him ready to kill him. That is why he betrayed Luke."

Kyle was silent for a few moments. "Well, there goes my childhood hero."

"That is exactly what I thought when I learned the truth."

"Wait" Jan said. "How did you know the truth? I'm guessing your grandparents didn't meet again."

"Nope, my grandmother went to Onderon when she learned she was pregnant to raise her son there. As for how I know… when I was 19, the force granted me a vision of all that really happened to Luke. I spent my whole childhood wanting to be just like my grandfather, but after learning the truth, it all changed. I turned my back on all of it; my hope of being a jedi, my family name, and… the legacy of Luke Skywalker."

* * *

Sometime later, Jacen left the ship's refresher to head back to his room when he was stopped by Kyle. "Jacen, I've been thinking about something."

"Kind of scares me that you're thinking Kyle." His friend hit his arm for the joke.

"The empire is going to come after us when they hear what we did. That means more imperial knights."

"Oh, please don't remind me."

"Jacen, I'm serious. I think we should work together to train ourselves."

Jacen knew immediately what Kyle meant when he said 'train.' "You want me to teach you how to use the force?"

"Yes. I told you how my dad appeared to me. I'm not sure why the force is manifesting itself in me now, but know that it is I need to learn to control it. It'll also come in handy during any future rematch with the imperial knights."

"Kyle, I'm no jedi. I want nothing to do with that anymore."

"I'm not asking you to show me how to be a Jedi, I'm asking you to show me how to use force powers."

"I'm… Kyle, I'm no teacher."

"But you're the only one here who has mastered the way of the force. You're the only one I can learn from. Plus, I can teach you how to fight with melee weapons. The imperial knights still use lightsabers, after all."

"Well, you handled yourself pretty well there." Jacen stopped talking for a moment as he thought about what his friend had in mind. Its true that Jacen knew how to use the force, which was different from actually being a jedi, and he himself probably needed to learn to face people in melee combat. Still, the idea of teaching someone was a little intimidating. It was part of the reason he refused to be a jedi. He glanced at his friend and saw the look of anticipation on his face. Kyle was really counting on this, he could sense it.

"Alright, I guess we can give it a try."


	4. Chapter 4

**Merry** **Christmas and Happy New Year all. I decided to get this one out before 2020.**

 **Remember, more reviews means quicker updates**

* * *

The ensign in charge of relaying messages aboard the destroyer _Doomgiver_ was making his way towards the personal quarters of the ship's commander. He had recieved a transmission with a large amount of data that needed to be downloaded to a datapad for easy access. While he normally had no problem with his job as the ship's communication handler, dealing with the head of the Imperial Knights was always a terrifying experience.

Stopping at the door to Lord Jerec's quarters, the ensign took a deep breath before hitting the control panel on the wall. The door automatically slid open and he walked inside. The room itself was extremely dark, hardly any lights at all. Despite this, the ensign knew Lord Jerec had no problems. How this was the case the ensign didn't know, but he had recently learned that questioning such things could be fatal. One of his commrades was strangled to death by Lord Jerec a few weeks ago upon asking the Imperial Knight how he managed to navigate his room, or anywhere, due to his species lack of eyes. Lord Jerec never gave the officer an answer, he simply choked the man to death after saying "everyone seems to fancy themselves a comedian."

"Yes ensign?" A voice rang out from the darkness. The ensign could barely make out the form of the empress' top enforcer as he turned in his meditation chair and stood up.

"Umm... we recently recieved a transmission from some of our military police on Euphrates, my Lord. They said they had information that I was to deliver to you immediately."

The ensign held up the datapad as the figure drew closer. Finally, Jerec stepped into the light that was shinning from the hallway and took the datapad.

"Most appreciated. If there is nothing else, you are dismissed."

The ensign bowed and, in a fast walk, left the room.

Jerec returned to his chair and sat down to review what his agents had gathered. His kind didn't need eyes to see anything; they saw through the Force. He could see the entirety of his surroundings in much more detail than anyone could with mere sight. Indeed, relying on physical sight was like trying to look at the galaxy through a tiny keyhole.

After the debacle of trying to capture the young man from Euphrates, Jerec had, under the empress' orders, called for local security forces to gather any intel on this person. An unfortunate surprise was that it took more than a week to even find any details about him. Apparently the companies that ran the food production didn't have that much information on their now former scout. All they could give them was the man's name (which he and his empress already knew thanks to their Imperial Knight), and that he moved to Euphrates from Onderon.

The headache only continued when local security forces on Onderon couldn't find much information on this Jacen also. Apparently his family name was erased from public and official government records shortly before his ancestor arrived. They could trace his lineage back to his grandmother, but that was it. The young man's parents had died when he was really young, so his grandmother had raised him. When Jacen reached nineteen, his last relative passed away and he left Onderon. Aside from that, it seemed like no one in the entire galaxy knew anything about this young man.

Jerec switched to the information gathered on one of this Jacen's companions: a woman with brown hair (just like Jacen's) that flowed to her shoulders named Jan Ors. Jerec was slightly intrigued with what he saw. Born into a family of Alderannian descended refugees, she apparently had spent the first few years of her life with a small fleet whose occupants were constatly looking for a new home. Finally they settled on an outer rim world that had been completely uninhabited by sentient life. The world was named New Alderann, after the world the original empire had destroyed in an effort to make an example of. Jan was a mercenary who apparently had a sense of honor. She didn't take jobs that she considered morally wrong, so she and her partner made their reputation mostly striking at criminal syndicate operations at the request of those who suffered from the criminal activities. Interesting.

Jerec chose to save the rest of the gathered information for another time so he could switch to this Ors' partner. He had the information brought up... and saw an eirly familiar face appear on the screen of the datapad. Jerec felt like he should know this man, even though he knew this person had never crossed paths with him before. Kyle Katarn. The young man was once a student at the imperial academy, but had dropped out shortly before officially choosing a career in the military. His instructors were apparently devestated, as this young man had been the top student in the class and many branches of the service were trying to persuade him to join them. The story only got more interesting from there. Apparently he had left the academy shortly after the leak about prison experiments had happened.

Jerec remembered that incident well, as he had been the one who hunted the leaker. The imperial military had wanted to beguin experimenting with methods of recruitment and physical enhancement that the greater galaxy would surely have considered immoral. To do so without attracting poor publicity from the galactic media, it was decided that the subjects of these experiments would be inmates in prisons who were serving life sentences. These prisoners were transfered to 'secret prisons' where the military would begin their experiments. These went on for quite some time and, in Jerec's mind, produced promising results.

However, a disgruntled officer in the project leaked the information to students at the academy on Corulag. This caused quite a scandal among the students and even attracted the media's attention. Fortunately the empress sent Jerec and several other knights to ensure the prisons that were housing the experiments were shut down before anyone could trace them, so many in the media played the incident off as a lie. Jerec personally dealt with the leaker, and he assumed that despite the stir that the damage control had worked. But it would seem that this Katarn was among the students who had taken issue with these experiments, for he stated them as the primary reason for resigning from his potential career in the military.

Still, as interesting as this story was, Jerec was bothered by the familiarity of the young man. Again, he was sure he had never crossed paths with this person before, but he KNEW there was something that he was missing. Where had he heard that name before? Katarn... Katarn... MORGAN KATARN! Jerec's mind flew back to a small agricultural moon called Sulon, where he had tracked a strong presence in the Force to a small family farm, only for that presence to disappear shortly before he arrived in person. All he found was an elderly man who was marginally Force sensitive (too weak to be of use to the Imperial Knights). Despite his use of... persuation... the only resident of the farm refused to say anything about the powerful presence Jerec felt. Now, after all these years, he finally knew what the answer to this mystery was.

"A son" Jerec said, sadistic amusement laced in his voice. He started to laugh, a cruel laugh that would fill any who could hear it with great dread.

* * *

"Ok, remember to keep your guard up."

Kyle and Jacen resumed their fighting stances for yet another practice fight, training swords in their hands. After a few weeks, Jacen was truly starting to get the hang of melee combat, or at least the basics of it. He was struggling to learn how to actually fight in a lightsaber form. Right now, Jacen was trying to learn Form III: Soresu. This was the most defensive of any form of combat, as it focused on deflecting laser shots and melee strikes. Therefore, Kyle was using a more aggressive form, Djem So.  
Jacen readied himself for the latest barrage of strikes from his training partner, holding the blade above his head in one hand while pointing his other hand at his opponent. Kyle readied himself as well, positioning his body in the typical Form V posture.

"Begin."

Kyle lunged forward a split second after speaking. Jacen swung his blade to intercept the strike, placing both hands on the hilt to give his counter more strength. The blades met with a metallic clang and flew apart as the two combatants moved to strike and parry once more. The large cargo bay echoed with more clangs as Jacen and Kyle continued their training. Jacen was actually keeping up with Kyle's strikes, constantly deflecting the constant attacks. This is what Form III was meant for, keeping yourself alive while your opponent wore down.

Suddenly, Jacen felt a serious jolt of pain as one of Kyle's strikes got past his defenses and hit him on the right arm. Letting out a cry of pain, he dropped his weapon and clutched his injury. Off to the side, he heard someone chuckle. Looking over, he saw Jan and R2 watching them.

"Hey R2" Jan said as she moved to leave the room, laughing slightly. "Tell me when it's over." R2 whistled and beeped in response.

"Well" Kyle said, amusement in his voice as well. "You ARE getting better. You're able to actually last a while against me."

"Ok" Jacen replied. "Now it's my turn." Jacen threw his hand out and Kyle fell flat on his back as a result of a Force push. "Now, my young apprentice, it's time for you to resume your training."

Kyle's attitude lost all amusement as he picked himself up. His own Force training under Jacen was going as well as Jacen's melee training was. He could make objects hover barely a centimeter off the ground, and his own Force pushes could only make Jacen feel like a breeze was hitting him.

Placing the blades on a table, Jacen and Kyle approached a set of crates they were using for telekinetic practice. They were empty because Kyle was still a beginner.  
"Ok, stretch out with the Force and picture the crate."

Kyle did as he was told. He felt the Force flowing into him, helping him summon the energy needed to perform his task. Finally, he stretched out at the crate and willed it to lift. The crate rattled slightly, and lifted off the ground. Unlike previous attempts, Kyle didn't let his excitement interrupt his focus. Willing the crate to rise higher, the crate suddenly flew up and slammed against the ceiling. The shock caused Kyle to fall back a few steps, resulting in the crate crashing back down on the floor. In the corner, R2 let out an amused whistle.

"Not bad" Jacen said as he faced his friend. "Up until now you could barely get the crates off the floor. Of course, had you tried to levitate a living being, you most likely would have crippled them with what you just did."

* * *

Hours later, Kyle exited the ship's refresher and headed to his and Jan's room. Jan and Jacen were already asleep, and Kyle had been the one responsible for ensuring the auto navigation was still functioning before turning in. In space, technically there was no day and night. So they told time by setting the ship's chronos to the time of a planet's cycle (in this case, Coruscant). After checking on the cockpit and seeing that all was running smoothly, he decided to get a quick rinse before turning in.  
Entering the quarters he occupied with his girlfriend, Kyle was careful not to wake the beautiful woman who was already in bed. Lifting the covers slightly, he climbed under them and slipped his arms around Jan. He was asleep within seconds, so tired he was from all the training he and Jacen were doing.

"Kyle."

Kyle saw his father standing next to him. The image around them was that of a giant white expanse, nothing and no one else with them.

"Hello father. I think its time you told me what my story is."

"I think so as well. Well, you already know we lived on Sulon. Our family were farmers going back as far as we could trace them, and none of them were Force sensitive as far as I know."

"So how is it we're connected to the Force?"

"ALL life is connected to the Force, Kyle. We just happen to have a stronger one than most people. I have no idea why the Force grants some people stronger connections than others. All I know is that I was the first person in our family to have a connection to it."

"However" Morgan continued. "My connection in life was nowhere near as strong as your's is. I could perform a few rudimentary tricks and one advanced trick, but that was it."

"What was the advanced trick?"

"I'll get to that soon. So, I was only marginally Force sensitive, so the empire was never interested in me. Had I been stronger in the Force, the Imperial Knights would certainly have forced me to join them. Your mother and I lived together in peace for many years, and than you came along and it was just perfect. But when you were three, your connection to the Force manifested itself. It was much stronger than my own, and I knew that eventually this would attract the attention of the empire."  
"My worst fear quickly came true" his father continued. "Shortly after we realized the strength of your Force potential, I felt a powerful presence on the moon, and I knew it was one of the Imperial Knights. Your mother and I knew exactly what was going to happen, so I did what I had to do. I supressed your own connection to the Force and told your mother to take you and flee. Hours after you both left, the Imperial Knight arrived at our farm. He wanted to know who was the person that had the powerful connection to the Force, but I refused to tell him. He... he tortured me relentlessly. Force lightning, choking and mental torturing me all the while demanding the identity and location of who he felt. I never gave him anything, and eventually his methods resulted in my death."

Kyle was speechless. He grew up with his mother never talking about why his father had died. "I... Father, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault Kyle. I would gladly do it all again if I had to. I was protecting you."

"Wait. You said you supressed my connection to the Force?"

"Yes Kyle. It was the only way to keep you hidden. Recently however, my action has started to ware off. Your connection is slowly returning to you. Soon, it will do so in its entirety."

"Why has it taken so long? Why did it not ware off after... you died?"

"I... don't know Kyle. Maybe the Force willed it to remain so."

"Why would the Force will that?"

"Maybe to ensure you remain hidden? I don't know son. The Force works in mysterious ways."

Kyle was silent for a moment as he processed all this information. His father was silent, waiting for his son to speak. Finally, Morgan got tired of waiting and decided to bring up another topic. "Kyle, there is something else I must tell you."

"What is it father?"

"It concerns your friend Jacen. I warned you about the attempt to capture him so you could save him, but it would also be wise if you were careful around him."  
Kyle was stunned. "What?! Jacen is one of my best friends!"

"He also walks close to the dark side. I watched over you as he told you and Jan his story. You know full well why he feels the way he does about his grandfather. However, his hatred, and I don't use that term lightly, skirts him close to the ways of the Imperial Knights. He is a good person and tries his best to stay that way, but he is capable of actions that would make one draw on the dark side. You must be careful around him."

"Father, I've never seen him say or do anything that would make me een consider Jacen was in danger of falling to the dark side."

"Perhaps you should see these then."

Just as Morgan stopped speaking, the area around them started to change. Suddenly they were in Jacen's house, seeing him walk through his garage door.

"What are we..." Morgan interrupted his son's question.

"We are currently seeing a vision of something that happened in the past."

Kyle and his father stood and watched as Jacen, who initially appeared happy, became angry as a spectral form came into view. Kyle recognized the newcomer as Luke Skywalker. Jacen and his ancestor argued about the family legacy and Jacen's refusal to take up the way of the Jedi.

"Failing at your own life wasn't good enough for you? You need to drag your own GRANDSON into the same hole you wound up in?!"

Jacen's words weren't a surprise, but his tone was. Kyle had never seen or heard his friend speak with such hatred before. The scene continued to play out until Jacen finally drove his grandfather off by threatening to cut his connection to the Force.

Than the scene changed. Kyle and Morgan were looking at three figures standing in the same expanse they had been in before the vision. Luke was one of them, as was an elderly human male and a small, green alien.

"Despite your best efforts Luke" the old man said. "It seems your grandson is determined to ensure the Jedi stay extinct."

"He just had to inherit my family's stubbornness. Well Obi-Wan, we can't just give up. I already tried that and it only helped the first order."

The little alien made a strange 'harumph' sound. "Too late, I fear it is, young Skywalker. Only further away have our attempts pushed Jacen. And if a Jedi he will not be, than no hope there is."

Luke stared at the alien. "Master Yoda... we can't just abandon the galaxy."

Yoda appeared to be in a depressed state. "The only hope, your grandson is. But rejected the Jedi, he has. With no Jedi left, triumphed the dark side has. Watch the suffering, I no longer can. Farewell, my fellow Jedi." Yoda faded, leaving Luke and Obi-Wan alone.

Kyle and Morgan were suddenly alone once again, the visions ending.

"Kyle, what you just saw were scenes that played out either in Jacen's life or happened because of Jacen. I'm not trying to turn you against your friend. What I am trying to do is put you on your guard. While Jacen doesn't want to join the dark side, he occasionally does skirt the edge of it. Be careful my son, for I couldn't bare to see you fall yourself."

Kyle was going to retort, but Morgan was starting to vanish. "FATHER! WAIT, I STILL..."

"I'm sorry Kyle. I can't stay any longer. Know I will still watch over you and will appear to you if you ever need me. I love you, my son."

Kyle opened his eyes and shot up in bed, momentairly not sure where he was. A quick yelp to his side reminded him of Jan's presence. His girlfriend was staring up at him.  
"Is something wrong, Kyle?"

Kyle was silent for a moment before he responded. "No Jan. Just an... odd dream.


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok, I'm sorry but I can't finish this story. I have too much going on right now, so I'm going to give you all the outline of what I planned for the story. This way you all will know what was going to happen.**

 **I want to say thank you to author Jedi Jesi Jiin for beta reading my chapters.**

* * *

The trio soon end up on the planet Myrkr, an unchartered world that is home to ysalamiri, reptiles that can suppress force powers in their presence. They find that this is the main base for the alliance attacking imperial military stations. After meeting with the commander of Rogue Squadron, a cathar named Ralga Nar-Hallas (Yes that is a reference to wing commander), the three meet the leader of the alliance: Admiral Stazi (through holocomm, since Stazi is still keeping appearances of a loyal imperial). Stazi is intrigued with Jacen and his friends, and offers them a chance to join his forces. They decide to join the renegades, though Jacen chooses to not tell anyone else who he really is.

Jacen and Kyle continue their training on Myrkr, though the ysalamiri occasionally cause problems. Jacen, Kyle and Jan start doing reconnaissance missions for Stazi while Jan even joins Rogue Squadron as commander Nar Hallas' second. On an early mission, Jacen runs into an imperial knight named Boc. When the twi'lek demands he surrender or die, Jacen uses the Force to snap his neck, taking the former knight's lightsabers for himself and Kyle.

However, on one mission to Kuat with Kyle, Jacen finds himself in a situation which causes him to tap into the dark side. Jacen runs into the brother of his former girlfriend Dani Quee, and is informed that she is dead. Apparently Dani had been pregnant with Jacen's child and had left the family home after her mother tried to force her to abort the child. Shortly after that, the apartment complex she was living in caught fire and she couldn't escape. Jacen, in shock that his child was lost before they got the chance to live, goes to the site of the now ruined complex to pay respects to Dani and their son (he feels it was a boy). Once there, he recieves a vision that shows the fire was actually arson. Jacen tracks the arsonist, a local gang leader, and attacks them in anger. The gang leader confesses that they were hired to commit the crime, and Jacen rips the information from his mind, learning the person who ordered the crime was Dani's own mother: Kathleen Quee, the governor of Kuat. As he leaves, the gang leader tries to shoot Jacen, but he blocks the shot and than uses the Force to crush the gang leader's heart (saying the leader clearly wasn't using it to begin with). Jacen is unaware his eyes flash the sickly yellow of someone who is drawing on the dark side. Jacen than goes to the governor's mansion on Kuat and attacks Dani's mother. After learning Dani's mother wanted her daughter's death because her pregnancy was a political nightmare, Jacen renders the governor braindead but still alive.

Upon returning to Myrkr, Kyle learns about Jacen's actions from a holonet news report. Although the media suspect the actions were the work of a rogue imperial knight, Kyle knows it was Jacen and confronts him. The two get into an argument where Jacen justifies his attack on the governor and says she wasn't worth the effort to try to redeem. Kyle responds that Jacen now sounds like his grandfather Luke, as he had a similiar opinion of Kylo Ren. At this, Jacen snaps with rage and force chokes Kyle almost to the point of death. Horrified when he snaps out of his anger, Jacen chooses to set out with R2 in a yt-2000 freighter the alliance allows him to use.

The hit and run strikes start to get more serious for the empire and Arcina starts to crack down on resistance across the galaxy. Meanwhile, Admiral Stazi learns that a new weapons project is underway at the shipyards of Sluis Van. Using his connections he learns that the empire is experimenting in a new type of star destroyer that is almost completed at the shipyards. Stazi decides to take the ship and other star destroyers under repair at the shipyards, knowing this will essentially cause open war to break out.

However, the imperial military is aware there is a traitor in their ranks and are using the ships to lure them into a trap. Jerec has entrusted this task to Admiral Rian Johnson, who has a personal grudge against Stazi due to his prejudice attitude towards any non human races. Johnson strongly suspects Stazi is the traitor and therefore this is personal for him.

Stazi leads a fleet of ships personally to Sluis Van after arranging for extra help from members of the planet's leadership. The defenses are shut down and the rebels are able to enter the system unhindered. However, when the troops sent to secure the ship fail to report, many start to suspect something is wrong. Suddenly, Admiral Johnson leads a fleet into the system and traps the renegade fleet against the shipyards, whose defenses are restored. It seems that the alliance is caught and finished.

However, Stazi had actually suspected a trap the entire time and secretly orchestrated it to work for him. Stazi orders his fleet to engage the imperials, initially catching the enemy fleet off guard. When Johnson orders fire from the shipyards, the defenses (including a ship-destroying hypervelocity gun) fire on the imperials. Stazi had arranged for Kyle and Jan to infiltrate the defense command and take control. The defenses specifically target Johnson's fleet, destroying most of the ships. With the enemy fleet defeated, the alliance flees with the ships.

Arcina does not react well to this defeat. Not only did Stazi escape with a secret weapon, the defeat is starting to reignite resistance to imperial rule across the galaxy. Jerec brings Johnson to her, and she executes him through the use of dark side tendrils. As a message, she personally leads a fleet to Sluis Van and destroys the capitol city. She than blockades the system and proceeds to starve the planet's population to death. She further warns the galaxy that a similar fate will await any who join Stazi.

Jacen goes out into the galaxy on an odyssey to figure out how he should proceed. His dreams are haunted by the image of his son while also seeing images of himself as the emperor (the latter are warnings from the Force about the potential of him falling to the dark side). His journeys take him to numerous planets, including dathomir. Here his ship has to land for repairs and Jacen needs to gather wreckage from the battle that took place here during the clone wars. Jacen also briefly integrates with a dathomiri witch tribe and grows close to a young human woman named Tenel Ka. He also meets an old hermit who has resided on the planet for decades. This hermit is an elderly togruta female who has knowledge of the jedi order of old. Jacen implores her to teach him how to fight with a lightsaber so he can defend himself from the imperial knights. While cautious due to the anger she senses in Jacen, she agrees.

As time goes on, Jacen learns his mentor is actually Ahsoka Tano, the former padawan of his ancestor Anakin Skywalker. Tano had been accused of killing someone during the clone wars and expelled from the order so the republic could put her on trial. Although Anakin found the real culprit, the fact that the council didn't stand with her upset Tano and she chose not to rejoin the jedi when the council offered. She fought in the early rebellion, and after the war ended she set off with a friend to look for another friend. Her own journeys caused her to crash on dathomir, and she was stranded. The duo decide to head back out into the greater galaxy, and Tenel Ka decides to go with them.

Stazi continues his attacks on the empire. However, Arcina's monstrous way of dealing with Sluis Van scared many worlds to refuse aid to the resistance fighters. Eventually, the empire locates Myrkr through the use of a traitor. The resistance is attacked by a massive armada that destroys their stronghold and forces Strazi to scatter his fleet into the outer rim to escape. Kyle and Jan stay with the alliance. Kyle continues to practice his force powers alone. Meanwhile, Jerec starts to take a personal interest in finding Kyle while Arcina continues her hunt for Jacen (unaware of who he really is).  
Tano becomes further weary of Jacen's attitude. Eventually the crew comes to the world of Atollon, a former rebel alliance world. Here they meet the Bendu, an entity who claims to exist on the edge of the light and dark sides of the force. After one too many outbursts from Jacen, Tano refuses to continue to instruct him until he makes peace with his inner turmoil. Through prodding from Tano and Bendu, Jacen finally admits that his turmoil is caused by his fear. Jacen does want to do more in the galaxy, but he is afraid of taking up the jedi way because he fears he'll fail like his ancestors. Jacen saw that each of his ancestors failures (Anakin, Leia and Luke) caused extreme suffering for the galaxy, and Jacen is terrified of making the galaxy worse than it already is. This is why he refused to listen to Luke when his ancestor appeared to him.

Jerec plans to lure the alliance into another trap by targeting the world of Dac, the homeworld of the Mon Calamari and Quarren. He knows that Stazi has their support and hopes that by attacking them he'll draw the alliance out. Stazi knows what the empire is doing, but takes the bait anyway to protect his allies as well as the Mon Calamari shipyards (one of the few shipyards that allows ships to join his fleet). The resulting battle sees the imperial forces driven off, but Stazi loses a large portion of his personal fleet. Therefore, the imperials come out on top here. Meanwhile, Kyle becomes the alliance's main defender against imperial knights when they are encountered.

On Atollon, the Bendu warns Jacen that he needs to be more wary of the dark side, or he'll become an abomination like Arcina. This peaks Jacen's interest in Arcina's history. The Bendu leads them all to a set of ruins on the planet that portrays Celestial beings. These ruins are actually a portal into a realm known as the world between worlds. Jacen uses his powers to open the portal and he, Tenel and Tano enter the realm. Through this they learn Arcina's history, and learn that she is actually Rey, the former apprentice of Luke Skywalker who defeated the first order.

Years ago, after the resistance defeated the first order, Rey set to work trying to restore the jedi order. During this intermission period, Rey journeys into the unknown regions and is captured by the yuuzhan vong and their grysk cousins (the grysk are actually vong who use regular mechnical technology). She is tortured through experimentation on her as well as the embrace of pain, a vong biological device that stimulates pain in anyone who is wrapped in it. Rey develops a deep hatred of her captors, starting her fall to the dark side. She manages to escape after months, and crash lands on Dxun, the jungle moon of the planet Onderon. Here, she relies more and more on her anger as she fights to survive against the predators on the moon. She finally locates a giant tomb, and discovers the spirit of a long dead sith lord, Freedon Nadd.

Nadd had ruled Onderon as its king millennia ago, and offers to teach her the ways of the dark side. Due to her self-taught jedi skills (lack of warning of the dark side), as well as her hatred of her former captors, Rey agrees and takes the name Arcina. After months of training in the tomb, Arcina becomes a master of the force. She also learns a dark side ability that allows her to consume the life energy of another being, making her stronger and keeping her young. Arcina finished Nadd once she no longer has a use for him, and escapes Dxun. They also learn that Arcina was the one who started the war with the vong. After escaping Dxun, she lured her former jedi apprentices into a trap on a frontier world of the Chiss Ascendancy. She than manipulated the vong to the planet so they would destroy it and the jedi, as well as the entire planet's population. Arcina used the oppourtunity to drain the life and Force from all the people who die, making her stronger and keeping her young (this is why the bendu calls her an abomination). Jacen is disgusted and enraged at this, and in that moment wants to pull Arcina out of the past into the realm so he can destroy her. However, Tano tells him he can't do this: Arcina was innocent until she learned from Nadd, and her influence on history is too great to alter without causing unforseen consequences (he may even cause himself to not be born). Jacen reluctantly follows his mentor's advice. Jacen also tries to save Dani and their unborn child in the past, but since Dani was not in-tuned with the Force he can't pull her into the realm.

As they leave the realm, Jacen destroys the ruins so no one can use the realm to alter history. He is slightly depressed he didn't destroy Arcina when he had the chance, but Tano assures him he did the right thing, calling him by his full name. Suddenly, a voice calls out in surprise at Jacen's name. As the group looks around, a team of imperial knights led by Arcina herself reveals themselves to have been hiding at the ruins through Force camoflauge (Jacen's opening the portal amplified his presence in the Force, allowing Arcina to find him). Arcina manages to fight all of Jacen's crew at once and effortlessly defeat them all (destroying Jacen's lightsaber in the process), but the Bendu intervenes and allows them to escape.

The crew flee into the unknown regions, and locate a world called Zonama Sekot. Here they find a colony of yuuzhan vong and grysk who escaped the slaughter of their people and decided to start over on their new world. Jacen is uneasy due to the vong's past crimes against the galaxy, but starts to accept them after continued interacions with Nei Rin, a shaper who specializes in less violent forms of biotechnology. Jacen perfects his skills on Zonama Sekot, which includes creating a new lightsaber. During this time, he and Tenel Ka fall in love and she takes up the training he is learning from Tano as well. Shortly after Tano declares Jacen's training complete, Jacen comes up with a plan to expose Arcina's crimes: the grysk had created a way to copy a person's thoughts into a viewable program. Using this technology, Jacen creates a holo of all he learned from the world between worlds, including how she used the vong. The surviving vong are outraged at this, and agree to aid Jacen and his crew in stopping the empress.

Stazi and his alliance rebuild their forces and start to fight the imperial armadas from their new strongholds in the outer rim. However, a surprise attack leads to his capture. The admiral is taken to the world of Coruscant for trial and execution.  
On Coruscant, Arcina is overseeing Stazi's trial personally. A rescue attempt made by Kyle and Jan fails and ends in their capture as well. Jerec takes great pleasure in taunting Kyle. Realizing they're trapped, Kyle proposes to Jan, and she accepts. At the trial, which is broadcasted live to the entire galaxy, Arcina sentences the rebels to death. However, the imperial knight assigned to carry out the deed frees them instead. The knight reveals himself to be Jacen, who reveals his heritage publically. The vong also reveal they infiltrated Coruscant and attack Arcina's forces, resulting is a planet wide melee between them. Jacen takes Stazi, Kyle and Jan into the underbelly of Coruscant's cities and meets with the rest of his crew. Jacen and Kyle repair their friendship. When the vong fleet arrives in the system, Jacen and his coalition make their escape. In the process, they also hijack the holonet and broadcast the truth of Arcina's actions to the galaxy, as well as the fact she is palpatine's granddaughter. This ignites galactic outrage, destroys the alliance between the Chiss Ascendancy and empire, and causes large swaths of the galaxy to join Stazi.

Months later, the galaxy had descended into all out war once again. Tano and Jacen finish Kyle's training. Kyle and Jan also marry. Meanwhile, Arcina decides to strike back against Jacen in an extremely personal way. Using a yuuzhan vong she captured years ago, she develops a biotoxin that kills any life exposed to it in minutes. She than weaponizes it into a missile, and deploys it on Euphrates. The result is the death of the entire world. The galaxy suspects that the vong were the ones who committed the attack, which causes public opinion to start to turn against the alliance.

This weapon immediately becomes the priority target of the alliance. Locating the source in the Onderon system, Stazi gathers all his forces together and attacks the station where the toxin is produced. A massive battle ensues, with Tano and Jan fighting in space while Jacen, Tenel Ka and Kyle descend to Dxun upon sensing Arcina. Encountering a garrison of imperial knights, Jacen journeys into Nadd's tomb alone while his fellow jedi hold off the enemy. Jacen finally encounters Arcina, who gloats that Jacen and all her enemies walked right into a trap once again. The empress tells him that the toxin is designed to spread through explosions, meaning that destroying the station will only scatter it throughout the entire system, as well as the fact that she and those who draw on the dark side are naturally immune to it. Arcina plans to destroy all life in the system except for her knights and consume the Force energy of all who die, thus destroying her enemies and increasing her already ludicrous force powers. The act will also cause the alliance to look like pariahs in the galaxy and allow the empire to remain in control. She offers Jacen a place at her side, but he refuses, and declares himself a jedi like his ancestors. A fierce duel ensues, which ends with Arcina overpowering Jacen. But before Arcina can deal the final blow, Jacen recovers enough strength to grab her and sever her connection to the force, ending the fight.

Jacen declares Arcina's reign at an end. Although stripped of the force, Arcina refuses to surrender and attacks with her lightsaber. Jacen is ultimately forced to strike his opponent down. When her knights sense her demise, they flee the moon into the galaxy. Kyle, meanwhile, duels and defeats Jerec.  
Jacen exits the tomb and immediately informs Stazi, who calls for his forces to stop their attack on the station and tries to hail the imperial fleet. However, its too late as a wing of bombers land a direct hit on the station's main reactor, triggering the stations self destruct and thus dooming all life in the system.

As the news of the toxin's design spreads throughout all the fleets, Stazi is resigned to this being his end while Jacen and Tenel, realizing this will be their last chance to be together, marry in the dathomiri custom (Jacen allows Tenel to capture him). However, Tano (who had been shot down earlier and crashed on the station) fights her way through the few security forces left, and reaches the armory where the toxin is stored. She tries to stop the toxin but her age and the strain from the space battle has exhausted her. Just as she is about to give up, Anakin Skywalker appears to her as a Force ghost. Seeing her former mentor (whom she felt was lost forever) redeemed allows Tano to find the strength to stop the empress' plan. Using the force, she creates a force bubble around the entire room. When the station explodes, her shield holds up and the armory is tractored into the imperial flagship. A ceasefire is called, and the two sides meet on the ship.

The jedi board the imperial flagship to find Tano dying, The strain of her shield to protect the system drew too much from her, and she passes into the force after telling Jacen that his ancestors are proud of him.

On Onderon's surface, Stazi and the imperial admiral in command arrange an official meeting to formally end the war. The story ends with Jacen reaching out to Luke to apologize to him for his past attitude, who appears to his descendant and warmly smiles at him, thus clearing the air between them.

An epilogue details how Jacen and his fellow jedi restored the order to the galaxy while a new republic and empire form from the two opposing sides remaining from the war. Jacen and Tenel Ka also have numerous children, restoring the Skywalker line to the galaxy.

* * *

 **Here are a few things I want to say about the story**

 **Freedo** **n** **Nadd**

 **I originally planned for him to be Arcina's ancestor. However, when RoS said Rey was palpatine's granddaughter I felt this would be redundant.**

 **I wanted him to be in the story because I felt his own story mirrors Kylo Ren since both their mentors failed them. As a way to test him, Nadd's mentor got him so worked up that he became angry and than left herself open to attack. The idea was to see if he could calm down, but he failed and struck her down. His fall was completely his mentor's fault, and a friend of mine likened it to someone offering drugs to someone on their last day in rehab.**

 **Yuuzhan Vong an** **d** **Grysk**

 **The Grysk appear to be Disney's way of incorporating the vong into their canon storylines. I felt the idea of vong using regular technology (what the grysk use) was interesting, so I made the Grysk a vong scout force who were stranded in the galaxy and needed to use mechanical technology since they couldn't recreate the biotechnology the rest of their people use.**

 **Ok, that is about it. Let me know what you think of the story in a review. Also, if anyone is interested in some scenes I already planned out, let me know and I can write them out.**


End file.
